Ralph Vaughan Williams: Piano Concerto in C major 

Soo fascinating that his time with Ravel, set him "free"!!!!! His music is so fascinating and so emotional! Once you can digest this Master, now move into the realm of Bax, Walton....Wow!!!

@@rickyhailpern1866 --- Exactly! BRAVO from Acapulco!

He is a student of Ravel.

oldwest517 Same here. For me, Romance for Strings & Orchestra (The Lark Ascending) and Five Variants of Dives & Lazarus were the first two works that opened the door to the incredible world of RVW.

癌Weeaboo.Nightcore4Life Yes. I often wondered if his rich gift of orchestration was developed under Ravel’s guidance. Also, I can hear the influence of Holst and Debussy as well.

It seems every ten years or so people say "we must have a Vaughan Williams revival, after all he's one of our greatest composers". Then they discover there is more to him than the Tallis Fantasia, Greensleeves and The Lark Ascending and don't know what to make of him. An incredibly gifted man whose music spans so many moods and genres he really can't be classified.

As an American orchestral musician (and conductor at the University level and at an Academy) I am unusual in that I have performed at least 4 of RVWs symphonies, many of his choral works, and the string orchestra music. I still more than occasionally do Five Mystical Songs with organ, choir, and timpani at our Episcopal Cathedral, and several other of his sacred works and choral anthems...always look forward to those services..

Tough family, Donald. Phew!! I'm just now hearing this amazing piece.

The loss of your uncle was the loss of nothing.

What beautiful and intelligent music, it radiates into space and develops in the listener the interest shown by Ralph Vaughan Williams in the microcosm and the macrocosm, and we pass to the luxuriance of the incredible harmonics which introduce you into an infinite space of freedom and reserves of deep and brilliant beauties of the interior which nourish your soul. Thank you life when I listen to such music that lets me appreciate the coming moment as a renewal. Pstt, there are surprising influences from Holst, Ravel, Bartok and Roussel, not to mention Rachmaninov, because the music of RVWilliams is in this concerto like a toolbox which sometimes said I openly or in a less insistent quote these companions of the musical writing, but remains in him this difficult capacity to obtain to keep its own identity, because it was a composer modest and awesome

It sounds to my ears the beginning also contains seeds of the 5th symphony, particularly the 2nd movement.

"Who wouldn't have fallen for Harriet Cohen?" Apart from her 30+ year affair with the married Arnold Bax (who was also having a second, parallel affair with another woman called Mary Gleave) she seems to have been quite the gal about town with a string of "admirers" from Ramsay MacDonald and DH Lawrence to Jean Sibelius.

Tim Holmes."England's greatest composer" No, that has to be Edward Elgar.

Thanks Peter!

Good luck with the concert! Don't forger to spell the composer's name correctly on programmes and publicity materials! 'Vaughan'.

@@271250cl "Don't forger"??? Physician, heal thyself!! 🤣🤣

@@gedofgont1006 Lol

Thanks for your comment Laurence. Needless to say I agree with what you say about the Concerto and I'm encouraged by what you say about my video!

As RVW studied with Ravel when he was near 30 years old...I can hear certain "Ravelian" phrases in some RVW's works....one especially in the 2nd Symphony.....

+Bob Horuff Thanks, Bob. The music's the important thing but I'm glad you liked the pictures too.

Merci beaucoup pour votre aimable réponse. Je suis très heureux que vous l'avez aimé, remi

Many thanks for sharing your response! This Romanza must, indeed, be one of RVW's most romantic creations, and one of his most beautiful.

Dont know that RVW is underrated anymore now that we are largely over the "Honk, Squeak, Fart" era in 20th C music (as my wife dubbed the 1960s through the 1970s)...and we played a lot of H,S, F music in our careers....most all very forgettable...

Salvador: Muchas gracias por tus amables palabras.

Interesting ! It had never occurred to me, but now that you mention it I definitely hear Bartok's 3rd concerto and some of the percussiveness of his first 2 concerti.

Don't blame them, blame RU-vid! :)

Yes i have always loved RVW.s music +now on U Tube people can hear it..but i hope it does not become.TOO.popular .+commercialised..

It stands up well in both versions....

Prokofiev, yes...Ravel, maybe not so much.....

There is the one by Vronsky and Babin with Boult conducting...paired with the 8th Symphony on an old vinyl recording I have...from the late 1960s perhaps...that is how I know this piece...

Glad you like it Keelan. If you 'Google' the full title of the work you'll see that it's published by Oxford University Press. The full title is: Vaughan Williams Concerto for Pianoforte and Orchestra+score

The OUP reduced edition score is landscape-formed and single piano part with 2 pisnos version's part in same timeline. Good luck!

If you're still interested in the score, e-mail me! (first name dot last name at Gmail.) I know this is years later, but I thought I'd offer.

Google, Don. These videos would be impossible without Google Images. Glad you liked it.

+Wendel Borges de Oliveira I don't, Wendel. However, there are many recordings of live concerts on RU-vid. It shouldn't be hard to find them.

This appeared before Bartok's piano concertos who apparently admired and studied it

Really?! I'm surprised (and secretly pleased)

Bartok Piano Concerti: #1 - 1926, #2 - 1930-31, #3 - 1945. I think it as just "in the air" in those pre-Nazi late 20s, Giovanni. Bartok's 3rd (my personal favorite) was his last work, and very different. He was in the U.S. then, living in Asheville, North Carolina, and dying of leukemia. I still have no confirmation that he studied Vaughan Williams work, but it may be true.

@@Phantomrasberryblowe Except for the 1st Bartok Concerto...which premiered in 1920 I believe....it is Bartok's answer to "Sacre du Printemps"....very much in that vein....

@@michaelhall9467 Have played the 1st and 3rd Bartok Concertos (in the orchestra)...the last time I did the 3rd was with Gyorgy Sebok a protege of Bartok's....who either premiered the 3rd...or did one of the very early performances of it...I cannot remember precisely which.

Michael - RVW, who played the viola himself, wrote two major works for the instrument: 'Flos Campi' and the Viola Suite. Flos Campi is a remarkable piece - just about the only work by VW which could be described as 'erotic'. It's inspired by the sensuous poetry of the Song of Soloman and was written, it's rumoured, when the composer was in love with a beautiful viola student at the RCM. I used parts of the viola suite in my biography video. You'll find a complete list of works at the website of the RVW Society.

Yes, very nice, Anya!

Yes, I recently got a CD with both of these and more. Flos Campi is really remarkable and a wonder to listen to. Thank you, Colin.

@@271250cl I always wanted to do Flos Campi...either conduct it, or play that remarkable tenor drum part...one of the choral works of RVW that I never got a chance to perform.....and now probably never will!

Yaqin Wang It is published by Oxford University Press but seems to be only available for hire. ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780193692718.do

And it is in UK! But thank you!!!!

Thank you!!!! I will check it out.

Is it only available for hire by OUP, or do you know at all if they will actually publish copies of it?

meriadocbrandebouc No, the concerto was oiginally written for a single soloist. VW made a two piano version later.

I remember notes from Vronsky and Babbin ? recording with Boult that the original one piano version was nearly unpayable. VW took the suggestion, from who I don't know, and reworked it for two pianos. I think it can work well in either form. Someone mentioned that parts sound like Ravel. I listened to an early recording of the Ravel String Quartet that Ravel supervised. The 3rd movt struck me as much like VW. Wonderful music.

David A. 🎶💙🎶

It's said that Bartok heard RVW's concerto and admired it. I'm pretty sure RVW would have been aware of BB's music, though I don't think he took a huge interest in it. As you say, the link is probably the modality of folk-music, and a very percussive approach to the piano in the outer movements.

... or your soul flies away As you prefer

I wish I knew. RU-vid is putting itself beyond the pale with this. I don't particularly object to ads before the music begins, but DURING the music?? I suppose the answer would be that YT is free; if you wan't music without ads, go out and support musicians and recording companies by buying their discs.

Suggest you install an ad blocker. I use uBlock Origin myself, never see ads when I'm playing RU-vid videos, presume the ad blocker is the reason.

Not to my ears, Nick; though RVW did use a theme from one of Bax's symphonies in this concerto, later removed.

Peter Simon "English music is not highly regarded outside the island"?! You mean it isn't popular with the ignorant, narrow-minded concert-going public. Musicians themselves, including conductors in all European countries and North America, have the HIGHEST regard for the works of composers such as Elgar, Holst, Britten, Walton, Tippett, and, yes, Ralph Vaughan Williams, among others. In the 20th century, only Russia can boast as great a contribution to the classical repertoire as England (given that Mahler, Schoenberg, and Richard Strauss all began their composing careers in the 19th century). Mind you, I don't know why I'm bothering to reply to someone who does not appreciate Bartok's music.

DieFlabbergast You don't have to reply, but I've never said I don't appreciate Bartok's music, I said I don't like most of it. A great difference. Yet I'm not American, nor British, I'm Hungarian. And I venture the remark that Hungarian composers are more often played for that ignorant public than Tippett, or Walton outside GB. And what can those high-minded musicians do with their regard? Be careful with that "all". I don't know much about German, or French, or Italian concert repertoires but I can say that those English composers are very rarely heard in Hungary or the Netherlands, except for a handful of pieces by Britten and one piece of Elgar and R.V.Williams respectively, and Walton's guitar pieces are performed. No disrespect, but that's not a very long list. And please, no disrespect for the public either, without them musicians die of hunger. Besides, we can blame all this on academia exactly, who don't show up wonderful works by other composers from other countries as regarded minor. I'd be happy to enjoy a concert by Borkiewicz, Ch. Wakefield Cadman, A. Gretchaninov, Reynaldo Hahn, Hannikainen, Artur Lemba, J. Marx, Rozycky, or A. Wiklund, although they were born in the 19th c., but sorry, our tastes are different, I don't like music that is too 'modern'. But I have hardly any chance, they aren't put on programs. I think that it is mostly the top institutions that engrave names on people's minds, you can blame them, not ignorance, and people can only go to concerts given to them.

Peter Simon You say that only one piece each by Elgar and R. Vaughan Williams is regularly performed in Europe? If you are right, I think we can blame the European musical academic establishment, which has consistently tried to push the works of the Second Viennese School and their successors (i.e. 12-tone works) down the throats of the concert-going public. Elgar's music belongs to the 19th century, and most of VW's works are hardly "modern" either. There is something seriously wrong if such beautiful music is not played in European concert halls. Fortunately, we live in the age of recorded music, and there is no shortage of recordings of British composers' works.

DieFlabbergast You are right! Although I haven't exactly said European academia as I can't speak for most countries either. But now the choice belongs mostly to the listener and I've included my opinion as only one of them.

Personal taste + also received wisdom, powerful influences on thought and appreciation, even narrow-minded biases, play a part in what is popular and well known. There will always be neglected greatness in international culture. Anglophone pop-rock music dominates, as does Hollywood in cinema, whereas so many marvellous films from round the world (including Hungary of course) are not known by most film goers. Variety is the spice of life and let there be a fair chance for all. Oh, and there are at least some people commenting here from outside UK who admire this and RVW- who knows how many more there might be if his music was played more widely?